Dr. Phil Says Tabloid Threatened To Publish Drunken Brawl Story

TV personality “Dr. Phil” McGraw and his wife Robin are suing American Media Inc. (publisher of celebrity tabloids the National Enquirer and Star) for “intentionally lying about them in stories of spousal abuse to boost magazine sales and save the company from dire financial straits.” According to the $250 million lawsuit, “the McGraws and American Media reached a two-year agreement in 2013 stipulating that the couple would not sue the company if it stopped running articles about them.” But shortly after the agreement expired in 2015, “the Enquirer and Star threatened to run a story that the McGraws contend is false.”

The story accuses Phil McGraw of getting into a drunken brawl at a bar when he was in college at Texas Tech University in the 1970s. According to the disputed story, McGraw allegedly smashed a beer mug over a man’s head. The lawsuit claims the bar where the “false story” took place didn’t open until six years after McGraw graduated.